


First Impressions Are Overrated

by Allain_Kelyarus



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Ambush, Gen, Mentions of Blood, Misunderstandings, Protective bat family, male!reader, vigilante!reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 18:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15824595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allain_Kelyarus/pseuds/Allain_Kelyarus
Summary: Tim’s suit has a fail-safe to alert the others when it’s not taken off properly. That would have been nice to know before you started performing emergency medical treatment on him. Cue the Bat family arriving and all jumping to conclusions. But hey, now you can tell people you’ve been punched in the face by Batman before.





	First Impressions Are Overrated

Red Robin readjusted his footing as he sat crouched on the rooftop adjacent from the warehouse he’d been observing for the past forty-five minutes. There’s a tension in the air that has him on high alert. He’s beginning to suspect this is more than a simple drug exchange. Something just doesn’t sit right with him.

After mentally reviewing the case file up until this point he concludes there must be something he’s missing. Something he can’t see right now. It’s too late to back out of this and review everything from scratch so instead he decides it’d be better if he calls for backup. He lifts his wrist and dials your number on his wrist computer. After two rings you pick up.

“Hello” you answer through a mouth full of Chinese food.

“How fast can you get to the warehouse district?” he asks wasting no time getting to his point.

“Ten minutes tops. Why?” you question, and he can hear you moving around on your end already preparing to head out.

“This case I’m working… something just doesn’t feel right. There’s a drug deal going down tonight at warehouse 83. I’d feel better if I had some backup” he explains.

“On my way.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem Red. See you in a few.” You tell him, and he hears your hover board powering up before the call ends.

He refocuses on the warehouse now that he knows you’re on your way and not a minute too soon. It seems both parties have arrived outside the warehouse for the deal. Both of his targets begin talking and just as he’s about to spring from his perch a third party arrives. His eyes widen slightly behind his mask. Up until now there had been nothing to suspect there was anyone else involved.

He considers his options and calculates the new risk with a third party involved. As he decides to change his vantage point and listen in he’s surprised for the second time tonight. They all turn in unison when the third man (obviously the leader of the new group) turns and points to his position on the rooftop.

_Shit._

________________________

 

As you near the warehouse Red Robin was talking about the sound of gunfire assaults your ears and the smell of gunpowder burns your nostrils. As far as you can tell his fears were warranted and all hell has broken loose. You quickly turn on your communicator to try and reach Red Robin and let him know you’re here.

Seeing as things have already escalated you waste no time with being stealthy and quickly insert yourself into the action. By the time you’ve knocked out your third lackey someone has already yelled to alert the others that there’s another person to take care of.

In the distance, you spot Red Robin surrounded by a group of thugs all heavily armed. Briefly, you realize he should have called more than just you for backup on this one but you’ve both been in worse situations. You’ll get yourselves out of this one.

Dropping a smoke bomb, you quickly switch the view mode on your goggles, so you can see through it no problem and take out the guys blocking your path to make it to Red Robin. You disrupt the circle surrounding him and see him grin before you join him back to back.

“Glad you could make it.” He says.

“And what? Let you have all the fun? I think not.” You respond slightly muffled through your lower face mask.

There’s no time for much else as your enemies begin their next assault and you both focus on taking them all out. Eventually they manage to separate the two of you again. Your gut feeling tells you that can’t mean anything good and as if to prove you right you hear Red Robin scream from off to your left.

It’s obvious they’re focusing on him. More of their fighters are surrounding him almost blocking your view. You see him clutching his abdomen as presumably the guy who just stabbed him goes flying from a powerful kick.

At this rate you’ll both be here all night. It’d be better to pull back and regroup especially now with one of you injured. You communicate as much to Red Robin through your comm link as you begin fighting your way towards him again. He disagrees at first but then you both catch sight of two vans pulling up with reinforcements and more guns.

This was planned. No doubt a trap to catch Red Robin. For what exactly you’re not so sure but you can make a few guesses. Half of them include the infamous Batman.

As soon as you’re close to Red Robin someone drops a grenade and everyone in the immediate area scatters. Thanks to your goggles the explosion doesn’t dampen your vision and steeling yourself for the heat you run through the fire to get to Red Robin. You can feel your suit being singed but ignore it in favor of reaching your friend. There’s no way you’re going to let him get taken by these guys.

The blast managed to knock him off his feet and you find him hunched over against one of the warehouse walls. There’s a small trickle of blood coming from the side of his head, but you see him already regaining consciousness as you near him. You drop a smoke bomb again to give you two more cover. As you crouch down to help him up he grabs your arm and stops you.

“I have a plan.” He states. “But it’s stupid and reckless.”

“Sounds like my kind of plan.” You grin as you tell him in return. “I’m all ears.”

He was right about it being stupid and reckless. He should’ve stressed just _how_ stupid and reckless he meant. His plan involves you leaving him alone as bait since it’s obvious he’s their target while you take advantage of the distraction to place and release some of your knockout gas bombs. It’s a clear and odorless gas of your own design so you know it’ll work. He plans to lead them inside the warehouse and seal them all in there to increase the effectiveness.

You hate the idea of leaving him alone when he’s injured like this but you two need to do something to get out of this one. You figure the faster you move the less time you have to leave him on his own against all of them.

Supposing four should be enough as you’re placing the last one in the warehouse some of the lackeys that stayed back realize you’re still in the area and haven’t left Red Robin to fend for himself like you’d led them to presume. A blow from behind has you lurching forward. You’re definitely going to be feeling that one in the morning. You roll out of the way in time to avoid a second blow.

You make quick work of them but not without sustaining more injuries. You can tell a bruise is already forming over your ribs but now isn’t the time to worry about that. With everything set up you signal Red Robin to warn him and then take your own precautions before releasing the gas.

Jumping down over the third floor railing you also activate the shutter doors to seal them inside. It works, and they start dropping like flies. Relief washes over you briefly and then you notice Red Robin kneeling on the ground clutching his side.

“Crap.”

You run over to him jumping over bodies to ensure you don’t trip on any of them. He’s still conscious but there’s blood beginning to pool underneath him.

“We have to get you out of here. Now.” You tell him a bit frantic as you begin to half carry him over to the nearest window.

“Don’t forget to alert the police…” He struggles to tell you as he fights to remain conscious. That hit to the head must have been more serious than he first let on.

“Yeah, yeah. This isn’t my first time in Gotham.” You remind him. Commandeering his wrist computer, you send out an alert to the GCPD. Who really should have heard that explosion earlier but honestly when isn’t there something exploding in Gotham?

Looking down you notice he’s still bleeding out and now your side is practically covered in his blood. As you make it outside through one of the windows you ask him if one of his safehouses is nearby and he just gestures to his wrist computer which you still have in your hand before passing out.

Taking out your hover board you deactivate the compact mode and it springs to life. Quickly but carefully you hop aboard. At max this thing can carry four people, so you know you should be fine, but you can’t help but worry. You find Red Robin’s nearest safehouse location and get there as fast as possible. He was in and out on the ride over and you’re pretty sure you’re completely drenched in his blood now. There’s no time for courtesy so using your emergency dagger you cut through his suit to begin seeing to his injuries with the medical supplies you scrounged up from his stash in his safehouse. Little do you know the repercussions of your hasty but arguably completely necessary actions.

________________________

 

Nightwing is riding along the highway between Bludhaven and Gotham intending to head to the Batcave now that new evidence has come to light connecting the case he’s been working and one of Batman’s. The alert is sent straight to his wrist computer and he sets it to display in his helmet, so he can see what the situation is while driving.

His blood runs cold as he realizes someone has taken Red Robin’s suit off improperly. He pulls up the last screenshot of data from his brother’s suit as well as the tracker in his suit. The tracker hasn’t been disabled so he pulls on the throttle of his bike and shifts gears. Speed limit be damned.

He’s weaving in and out of traffic as he tries calling Tim a few times but gets no response. He curses and then calls Bruce.

________________________

 

Two bodies harshly bang into the back wall of a freight container and the sound reverberates. They join the pile that’s starting to form on the floor. Red Hood’s wrist lights up with an alert as he punches another scumbag and sends him reeling back with a broken nose. He has more planned for him and the rest of these guys. They’re child human traffickers and deserve every blow he delivers.

In one smooth motion he presses the alert to see what it is while also delivering a roundhouse to the guy who thought he was sneaking up on him. He freezes for a split second when the data lights up his helmet. Someone’s taken off Red Robin’s suit. They all have the fail-safe in case of emergencies and he knows the same thing has been sent to the rest of the family. They should be able to handle it. He’ll stop by the cave later just in case but right now he’s busy.

He knocks the next guy out and just in case checks the screenshot of Tim’s vitals before the suit was removed.

Next thing he knows all of the traffickers are down. There’s a slow pool of blood forming underneath the pile he’s left them in. An alert for GCPD to come clean this up has been sent and he’s on his bike speeding to the tracker location in Tim’s suit.

He better still be alive when Jason gets there or whoever did this is dead. Screw Batman’s no killing rule. Not again. Never again. He’s had enough of people dying (actually or not) in this god forsaken family.

He’s calling Batman before he even realizes.

________________________

 

Batman and Robin are jumping across rooftops heading back to the Batmobile when both of them receive the alert. They both check it and quicken their pace as a result.

As they reach their vehicle Batman pulls up the information on his screen. A narrowing of the eyes is all he allows as he presses the gas and looks through the information on screen. He can sense Robin stiffening beside him as they look through the last snapshot the suit took of Red Robin’s vitals. There’s no sugar coating it. Things look bad. Fortunately, whoever did this hasn’t disabled the tracker in the suit and Batman pulls a U-turn that would’ve flipped any other car over and sent it flying. Thankfully there’s no other cars on the road right then.

They’re on the other side of Gotham but he’ll be damned if he gets there too late.

Robin answers the incoming call from Nightwing, so Batman can focus on driving. He doesn’t even get a word out before Nightwing starts talking.

“How far away are you two? I’m on the highway but I can be there in less than five.” They all know it’s not a five-minute drive but if Nightwing says he’ll get there in five then nothing is going to stop him.

“We’re on the other side but we’ll be there in two minutes.” Batman answers.

Robin glances at his father at that. He doesn’t doubt him, but he does readjust himself in his seat. Double checking his seat belt couldn’t hurt either. Before anything else is said they receive a phone call from Red Hood and patch him into the conversation.

“Who?” is all Red Hood growls out over the line, but he doesn’t need to say anymore.

“He was working a drug case last I heard.” Nightwing offers.

“If I recall a deal was to be brokered tonight.” Robin adds in.

“Drug dealers?” Red Hood asks because as much shit as he gives him (and the rest of them for that matter) he knows Tim is totally capable of handling that.

“Something could have gone wrong.” Batman replies thinking similarly as Jason.

“Are you thinking an ambush?” Nightwing throws out there. It wouldn’t be the first time something they thought was a simple case turned out to be a trap for them.

“Possibly.” Batman replies. That could be it but then again, he trained Tim and he knows he taught him when backup is necessary. If it was an ambush he should’ve contacted at least one of them. Unless things were really…

He doesn’t let himself finish that thought. Right now, he needs to focus on getting there and making sure Tim is safe.

“We’re close” is all he says in warning before he intends to end the call.

“Right behind ya” Red Hood says and sure enough they can make him out in the rearview mirror.

“I’m less than a minute out” Nightwing says hating that he’s so far away. If he could help it he’d be the first one there.

They all end the call and focus on reaching Tim as quickly as possible.

________________________

 

You can feel the sweat beading along your forehead as you work to stich Red Robin up. He’s in and out of consciousness and you don’t know whether you should be glad or worried. On the one hand there really isn’t time for anesthesia or any kind of numbing agent but on the other hand he definitely has a concussion. You’ll blame yourself if he never wakes up again and how do you even explain that to his batshit (pun intended) family without them in turn beating the shit out of you?

You finish stitching his skin back together and thankfully he’s stopped bleeding out. You figure he’s still going to need a blood transfusion but for now he’s out of the woods as long as you can get that concussion checked out properly. You move to examine his head and as you’re about to prod him awake you’re lifted up from behind and flung across the living room into the wall. Hard. All the air is knocked out of you on impact and your first thought is that someone from the warehouse followed you.

A dark looming shadow punches you in the gut making contact with the bruise from earlier and you’re pretty sure they broke at _least_ two of your ribs if not fractured most of them with that punch. You cough unable to catch your breath and your assailant doesn’t let up. You know you should be fighting back but they’re not pulling any punches and your injuries from earlier aren’t anything to sneeze at either.

In the haze of activity, you look past your attacker and see others hovering over Red Robin. You know he can’t protect himself like this, so you gather what’s left of your strength to fight back. At the very least you’ll go down fighting. Whoever they are most likely tripped the alarms coming in here and you know if they aren’t turned off within a certain amount of time it’ll alert others. So, you just need to hold out until they arrive.

You dodge the next blow and roll away to give you some distance to work with. However, your attacker is fast much faster than you with all your injuries and he grabs ahold of you and has you pinned to the wall from one second to the next.

“Who are you?” he growls out.

You gasp for breath feeling the gauntlet of your attacker pressing down on your neck. The fact that you don’t bother trying to answer seems to anger him even more than he already is and before you know it he’s slamming you into the wall again.

There’s an intense pain in your left shoulder and you scream against your will while failing to instinctively grab at your arm with the way you’re pinned down.

Your scream is enough to wake Red Robin though. He comes back to consciousness surrounded by his brothers for some reason and in a hell of a lot of pain. They’re saying something to him as he groans. Then he remembers what happened and his eyes fly open in search of you. He hears you scream again and tries to sit up to see you better, but he’s pushed back down. It was enough though and he sees Batman more or less beating the shit out of you and knows there’s been a mistake.

“S-stop” he croaks out but it’s not loud enough, so he takes a deep breath even though it hurts to do so and in the loudest voice he can manage right now he yells again. “STOP!”

All movement in the room stops as no one is quite sure who that’s directed at. His breathing is heavy and all he wants to do right now is sleep but he knows the only way his overprotective family will get a clue is if he’s awake and explains.

You slump forward with shallow breathing and Tim can feel panic begin to rise within him. Adrenaline wakes him up even more. “Let him go Batman!” he yells so there’s no mistake who he’s talking to and what he means.

Batman? You think to yourself. Well damn. That explains a lot. The others huddled around Red Robin must be the rest of them.

Batman’s grip on you loosens enough that you can take deeper breaths but honestly with the way your lungs are on fire you’re not sure that’s an improvement.

“Let him go” Tim repeats tiredly but still determined to make sure you’re not hurt anymore than you already were.

Batman looks at him and then releases you as he steps back. You do your best to not crumple into a pathetic heap on the floor but it’s close as your legs give out and you slide down the wall behind you.

“You okay?” Red Robin asks.

“Peachy.” You reply and then regret it as you cough while still trying to breathe properly.

Tim sighs. If there’s enough left in you to be sarcastic at a time like this then you’ll be fine.

“What is going on?” Nightwing asks the question on everyone else’s mind. There’s no doubt Tim is injured but he just stopped Bruce from beating up his attacker. At least who they all thought was his attacker… now he’s not so sure.

Tim feels the grogginess coming back but if he blacks out now who knows what they’ll do to you. So, he shakes himself awake and tries to explain as clearly as possible.

“Tonight, was an ambush. He saved me and was patching me up. I have a concussion and couldn’t remember to tell him not to cut my suit off.” He does his best to explain as he feels his eyelids becoming heavier and heavier. The majority of that was probably slurred together but he thinks they all get the point.

“Tt. Why didn’t you call us if it was an ambush?” Robin asks.

“Robin now isn’t the time for that.” Nightwing says watching Tim fight to stay awake.

Everyone’s attention is brought back to you as your breathing changes and you start taking deeper breathes again. A hand comes down within your view and you stare at it like a foreign object before using the wall behind you to help you stand instead. No offense to Batman but you’re not too keen on accepting help from the same hand that broke your ribs a minute ago.

Your eyes meet Batman’s (or you assume they do) as you lean heavily against the wall waiting for the room to stop spinning. You drag your gaze back to Red Robin who’s already looking your way.

You take a second to steady yourself and step away from the wall. No one says anything as you walk towards the center of the room. You take in how everyone looks and decide it’d be best if you left before one of them decides you breathed wrong or something equally crazy and pounces on you. You can check on him later but you’re sure his family has got this handled from here.

“As nice as this meeting was” you start. “I’ve got cold Chinese food to eat and a shoulder to set so I’ll just…” you let the sentence drop and turn towards the living room window intending to leave through it, so you don’t have to go through any of them.

“Wait.” Red Hood speaks up.

You freeze and half turn in his direction.

“Let me set your shoulder.” He offers. You’re not too sure about that. It involves more touching than you’re comfortable with at the moment. As you mull over the proposition Red Robin decides for you.

“Just let him do it.” He begins. “You’re already hurt we don’t need you crashing into things… again.” He finishes with a smug smirk.

“Hey that was one time!” you exclaim and huff resisting the urge to cross your arms (that wouldn’t be smart considering your shoulder) and pout. You crash once, and your friends never let you live it down! “Besides I brought my board instead of my bike this time.” You continue moodily but turn all the way around anyway. Hesitantly, you glance at Red Hood and decide it really is better to have someone else do it for you. Tentatively, you step close enough and not a centimeter closer. Silently he reaches out and with only a short pause for you to brace yourself he quickly pulls your shoulder back into place. Gritting your teeth, you slowly exhale.

“Thanks.” You tell him trying to be sincere. Dislocated shoulders are a bitch to fix by yourself.

“No problem.” He responds with a nod and you move away.

You turn to leave again and say goodbye to Red Robin. “See ya Red. I’ll call.” You say with a small wave that he returns weakly. With that done you quickly take your leave exiting through the window. All things considered that could’ve gone much worse. Although you suppose you should lay low for a while now. You lock yourself in place on your hover board and start thinking of where you should head to once you heal up enough. Gotham is ok and all, but you’d rather avoid any awkward run ins in the near future. After all what do you say to the guy who beat the crap out of you thinking you were hurting his son?


End file.
